The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.-Mark Twain

In January, 2010, Empact Northwest sent it's first team of emergency medical professionals to Haiti in response to that nation's devastating earthquake. Dozens of missions later, we had come to know much about the Haitian healthcare system and had identified a pressing need. As capable and dedicated as Haiti's in-hospital and in-clinic medical providers may have been, there was very little, if any, professional prehospital emergency medical services available. At best, a person sick or injured might wait for up to an hour for an ambulance staffed with a driver to come give them a ride; at worst, perhaps no ride would appear at all. At the same time, thousands of intelligent young Haitians were without any real prospect for a career. Recognizing a problem that we were uniquely positioned to solve, Empact Northwest immediately began working to improve conditions on the ground for Haitians.

Starting in late 2010 with our initial group of Haitian interpreters, Empact began an ad hoc first aid and emergency medical training program with the goal of creating a cadre of well trained community responders. This mission quickly grew and morphed and soon Empact was being asked to develop and implement a full fledged Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course in partnership with the government of Haiti and Bernard Mevs hospital. Our talented group of instructors worked diligently for many months to translate and adapt American EMT educational materials to the unique components of delivering high quality care in Haiti, followed by many more months of instruction.

We are exceptionally proud to say that in 2011, Empact Northwest and the nation of Haiti graduated that country's first ever class of fully qualified, trained Emergency Medical Technicians. Many of these young men and women have since gone onto find employment in emergency response, ground medical transport, aeromedical transport, and other medical fields. Additionally, since our first course, several more courses of EMT's have graduated from the now indigenous program.